(BEDFORD) - The Lawrence County commissioners approved the bid from CLR to place the support beams, form, pour and do the finish work on the deck of bridge 75 on Dunn Bridge Road, northwest of Heltonville.

Bob Dillon, county project manager, told the commissioners Tuesday morning his crews will complete the other work. CLR bid was for $155,975. The complete project will cost an estimated $206,000.

"This is something we will have to address because it will affect school bus routes," Dillon says. "I would also like to see the bridge alignment adjusted to make it straighter, to get rid of that center pillar that catches all kinds of debris from the river."

The bridge was lowered from a 12 ton weight restriction to 6 tons after the bridge inspection showed the beams were starting to buckle.

Marino says 19 of the bridges have structural problems and received poor to low ratings and 13 of them will need to be replaced within the next 10 years.

* Lawrence County Sheriff Sam Craig notified the commissioners he received a bid of $1,950 from Meadows Heating & Cooling to place sprinklers in a back hallway in the lower level of the jail near the office areas.

During an inspection of the jail, state and Bedford fire inspectors noticed the missing sprinklers and notified the sheriff the situation needed to be corrected to bring the building up to code.

He reported there were 127 inmates at the jail, 16 were Department of Correction holds and 25 were female. Craig says DOC was coming to the jail Tuesday to transport a number of the DOC inmates to other facilities.

Craig also presented the annual commissary and jail reports.

* Rex Knight of SIDC held a public meeting in participation of obtaining a grant to demolish the courthouse annex. The building is falling apart and Knight hopes to secure a CDBG disaster or a Community Rural Affairs grant so the building can be demolished and the area returned to a green space.